Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY GREAT MARTYR NICETAS THE GOTH
By descent a Goth; a disciple of Bishop Theophilus of Gothia, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council. When the Gothic Prince Athanaric began to persecute Christians, Saint Nicetas stood before the prince and denounced him for his godlessness and inhumanity. Tortured with terrible torments, Nicetas ever more boldly confessed the faith of Christ and prayed to God with thanksgiving. And he kept his mind unceasingly lifted up and immersed in God, and upon his breast beneath his garment he carried an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Pre-eternal Christ Child, standing and holding a cross in His hands. Saint Nicetas carried this icon because the Most Holy Theotokos had appeared to him and comforted him. At last the tormentor cast the soldier of Christ into the fire, in which the holy martyr breathed his last, but his body remained unharmed by the fire. His friend Marianus transferred his body from the Gothic land (Wallachia and Bessarabia) to Cilicia, to the city of Mopsuestia, where he built a church dedicated to Saint Nicetas and placed in it the wonderworking relics of the martyr. He suffered and was glorified in the year 372.
2. VENERABLE PHILOTHEUS
From the village of Myrmex, or Mravina, in Asia Minor. His mother bore the same name, only reversed: Theophila. He was a presbyter and even during his lifetime a great wonderworker. On one occasion he turned water into wine; on another he multiplied bread. He reposed in the Lord in the tenth century. His relics were found to be myrrh-streaming.
3. HOLY MARTYR PORPHYRIUS
By birth from Mimosia. At first he mocked Christians before Emperor Julian the Apostate. Thus on one occasion, acting out the Christian Mystery of Baptism, he immersed himself in water on stage while pronouncing the words: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!" When he rose from the water he cried out: "Now I am a Christian!" Everyone thought he was joking as an actor, as always, but he stood firm in his declaration, ceased mocking Christianity, and at last suffered for Christ. He was beheaded in the year 361 and passed over into the Kingdom of Christ.
4. HOLY MARTYRS THEODOTUS, ASCLIADES, AND MAXIMUS
Distinguished Thracians by birth. They suffered for Christ near Philippopolis in the village of Saltis (between 305 and 311) and passed over into the heavenly Kingdom.
5. SAINT BESSARION, ARCHBISHOP OF LARISSA, WONDERWORKER
He founded the Monastery of the Savior in the Diocese of Larissa. He was glorified by miracles both during his life and after his death.
6. HOLY NEW MARTYR JOHN OF CRETE
He suffered for the faith of Christ at the hands of the Turks in Ephesus in the year 1811.
7. SAINT JOSEPH, BISHOP OF ALAVERDI
One of those twelve Syrian Fathers (May 7) who were sent to the regions of the Caucasus to preach the Gospel. Saint Joseph peacefully reposed in the Lord in the year 570. His wonderworking relics rest in the Alaverdi Cathedral.
“When the Gothic Prince Athanaric began to persecute Christians, Saint Nicetas stood before the prince and denounced him for his godlessness and inhumanity.”
Hymn of Praise
A true patriot is he who in his own nation
Builds a living altar to the Living Lord.
Athanaric the Goth ruled by violence,
And to dead idols brought sacrifices;
But the holy Nicetas, a soldier of Christ God,
Was a preacher of eternal salvation;
This one scattered eternal light into the night,
While that one with idol-darkness shrouded souls.
Holy Nicetas opposed the prince,
And by his courageous endurance astonished his people,
By the power of the Precious Cross he confounded the dark power,
And with the fear of God he filled all the people.
His blood was the crimson of a new dawn,
And his spirit soared to the heavenly courts;
In a terrible fire Nicetas burned,
But even to this day he has not been consumed.
By the truth of Christ the Goths were baptized,
And their own Nicetas they gloriously honored.
O holy Nicetas, voice of God's trumpet,
Courageous martyr, true patriot,
From the tents of earth thou hast departed,
Into the royal courts thou standest with the angels.
Pray for us, for the King hearkens to thee,
That our souls also may find God's mercy.
“His blood was the crimson of a new dawn, and his spirit soared to the heavenly courts.”
Reflection
God is not mocked. Those who mock, God either punishes to correct, or converts into the very things they mock. Saint Porphyrius first won fame among the pagans as a mocker of Christianity. Once he mocked the Christian Mystery of Baptism before Emperor Julian the Apostate and his retinue. But something quite unexpected happened. When Porphyrius immersed himself in the water and uttered the words that he was being baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, suddenly a change of spirit occurred within him, and he in truth became a Christian. And instead of mocking the Christian faith, he began to denounce the emperor for his impious idolatry. For this he was tortured and beheaded. A similar case occurred with a certain comedian named Genesius, probably in the time of Diocletian. This Genesius performed a parody of Christian worship before a pagan crowd and entertained them all with his mockeries and jests. But suddenly he changed and cried out before the people: "I believe, and I desire to be baptized." The spectators at first thought that these words also belonged to his comedy; but he began to repeat his faith in Christ. And when before the court and even before the emperor himself he stubbornly held to his faith in Christ, he was tortured and killed. Thus even mockers of Christ become martyrs for Christ.
“God is not mocked. Those who mock God either punishes to correct, or converts into the very things they mock.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the punishment of God upon a disobedient prophet (I Kings 13), namely:
1. How that prophet was commanded by God not to eat or drink anything in the idolatrous Bethel;
2. How the prophet disobeyed God and ate and drank;
3. How on the way back a lion tore him to pieces.
Homily
on the twofold testimony of the Son of God
In the Law it is written that two witnesses are needed to prove something. To the unbelieving Jews the Lord first pointed to three great testimonies about Himself: to the Father, to His own works, and to the Holy Scriptures (5:36-39). Then, after yet more miracles and after a more extensive exposition of His teaching, He told them that His testimony alone concerning Himself was true and sufficient (8:14). Finally, He once again sets before them two testimonies, His own and the Father's — in accordance with the legal requirement of two witnesses. Thus the Lord closes the mouths of the unbelieving by every means, and leaves them no opening — except the crime of murder, to which all those resort who will not be convinced by any reasons or proofs of the truth.
In this last instance, where the Lord sets forth His own testimony about Himself and the testimony of His Father, He wishes to show both His own hypostatic independence and His equality with the Father in essence. He places, namely, His own testimony both separately and alongside the testimony of God the Father. That this interpretation is correct is confirmed by the following words: *If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also. * Here is expressed the complete essential unity of Father and Son, and there remains not the slightest doubt that the Lord is speaking of His essential equality with His Father. It is the divine nature that is spoken of, and not the bodily. Whoever would imagine the Holy Trinity as three bodily beings would be foolishly deceived. Bodily, only the Son of God appeared to the world, for the sake of the world's salvation, and in no way the Father and the Holy Spirit. But in His divine nature the Son, even in the body, remained equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The human nature He put on and added to His divine nature out of love for men, so that He might appear to men and so that He might save men.
O Holy Trinity, consubstantial and undivided, who through the Incarnate God the Word hast enlightened and sanctified us, uphold us to the end by Thy holiness, Thy strength, and Thy immortality, and save us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“I bear witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me beareth witness of Me.”